Fascinating - a dick pic as the best way to illustrate what Snowden is discussing to Americans. And it wasn’t a softball interview. And Oliver was fuckin’ hilarious. Bravo.
And Snowden’s pause when Oliver asks whether he likes Florida was priceless.
That was amazing. Somehow John Oliver managed to give a hard-ass interview, make Snowden look smart and noble while at the same time calling him out, and create a meaningful conversation around surveillance and dick pictures. A+.
I guess I am surprised this isn’t getting more buzz. I know folks have HBO because of Game of Thrones! Have folks seen this?
Here’s a link to a WSJ’s analysis of it and I think a link to the actual interview. I am just Googling for a link, but went with WSJ because they are typically thought of as conservative so I thought it would be good to show how impressed they were with the piece:
It was an amazing interview. It was hilarious when Oliver was waiting for Snowden to show up. And absolutely brilliant to use dick pics to help explain what the various rules mean that the government can do.
I don’t know if Oliver himself connected up the Jennifer Lawrence (and others) hacking with indiscriminate data gathering, but it’s so brilliantly zeitgeist and attuned it makes for one of the best interviews I have ever experienced.
What he achieves in about 18 minutes is just mouth-opened remarkable.
I was extremely impressed by everything, including Jon talking to the security services through his microphone while waiting for Snowden to show up. And it was genuinely informative. And funny as can be.
At first I was annoyed with Oliver because he kept interrupting Snowden, but by the end my jaw was on the floor. Oliver just keeps getting better and better.
[Totally kidding; only going for the humor and NOT looking to start a debate in a Café Society thread]
Oh, sure you say that *now* - but what if that's *your* dick pic being analyzed by the NSA for evidence of terrorist activities?! You could end up being accused of having a terrorist dick!!
[/Totally kidding; only going for the humor and NOT looking to start a debate in a Café Society thread]
Regardless of one’s political views, Oliver’s use of Dick Pics to illustrate what is going on is a grown-up version of Schoolhouse Rock’s I’m Just a Bill! And as far as Daily-Show-based mixes of comedic journalism go, this pretty much sets a new bar. Jon Stewart must be kvelling like a proud bubbe right now!!*
Not me. But the interview was interestingly done. It was nice HBO gave Oliver extra air time for the week. I hope they let him do 48 weeks a year or the like.